Viewfinity Privilege Management Version 3.5, launched today, meets multiple business needs of a Least Privileges environment through a variety of “must have” capabilities including:

• Granular and flexible management of locked down environments
• Elevation of both time-based and permanent privileges for workstations and users

Many organizations look at the migration to Windows 7 as an opportune time to re-evaluate polices associated with granting local administrator rights to users on Windows system.  There are a number of advantages when end users do not have local administrative rights on their Windows desktops.  These include:

-         Less chance for malware to successfully attack the system.   When the end user doesn’t have local administrator rights, the malware that tries to exploit vulnerabilities in software such as media players, mail clients, and internet browsers is much less likely to succeed.   A locked down desktop doesn’t eliminate the need for firewall, AV, and other security software, however it certainly does provide another layer of defense against malware.

-         Reduce chance for the end user to make unauthorized changes to the system.   When users are not able to make unauthorized changes to their system there is less chance for something to break that will lead to a support call from the user.   The more changes that are made to a system the more chance that there will be system or application errors introduced.  Locking down the desktop results in a more stable and predictable computing environment for the end users.

-         Better control on which applications are installed and used on the system.   When end users do not have local administrator rights there are many applications that they can no longer install.   This helps organizations better ensure compliance with software license counts.  Controlling which applications are installed and run on the desktop also limits the chances for application incompatibility issues.

-         Fewer support calls to the IT helpdesk.   When end users are running in an environment that is more stable from a perspective of system changes and applications that are installed, there are problems that the end user encounters.  This results in fewer calls to the IT helpdesk.   

-New OS Image Deployment, Patch Management, Privilege Management and Interactive Dashboard Features Continue Viewfinity’s Commitment to Customers-

Waltham, MA – June 14, 2010 – Viewfinity (www.viewfinity.com), the innovator of privilege and systems management, today released version 3.0 of its solution suite. Nearly 3 months after its debut launch into the market, Viewfinity continues to make good on its commitment to customer-led product development and to build products that are critically needed in the market.

See the new features and updates in a live webcast demonstration, June 16th at 11:45 am ET

Register here to attend: http://www.viewfinity.com/Resources/LiveDemo.aspx?reg=sm

Additional Viewfinity features / functionality include:

· Privilege Management: administrators can create policies that will execute scripts without needing to assign local administrator rights to the end user; identify applications that require administrator rights, and permit or block the use of child processes

· OS Deployment: creates an exact disk image of the laptop/desktop including the operating system, configuration files and all applications and deploys the image to multiple systems simultaneously, making it ideal for rapid bare-metal installations (OS deployment via Acronis Snap Deploy)

· Patch Management: fully manages the distribution of updates released through Microsoft Update to computers in your network as well as mobile computers not connected to the internal network

· Viewfinity Dashboard: provides a quick view into the operations and status of the company assets through live monitoring of select desktops and servers to identify problematic areas

· Windows 7 OS Deployment with Viewfinity User Migration: a valuable add-on to the Acronis image deployment software for domain based migration of user personal settings, application settings and user data files to prepare for and perform the migration from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7.

Viewfinity also complements traditional systems management, such as SCCM, by offering new flexibility to manage administrator rights for locked down computers.

Viewfinity Systems Management solution can be delivered from a web-hosted platform or installed on premises. All desktop management is done through a secure and encrypted HTTPS connection which provides the ideal method for managing PCs for remote and mobile workers. Its web-hosted platform is also ideal for proof-of-concept evaluations because it eliminates the need to build a complex server environment to evaluate or deploy the software.

Online registration is available for trial evaluations here: http://www.viewfinity.com/SaasStart.aspx

Tags: Viewfinity, Desktop Management, Systems Management, Patch Management, OS Deployment, Software Deployment, Privilege Management, SaaS, Windows 7 Migration

About Viewfinity

Viewfinity is the innovator of systems and privilege management via cloud-computing, allowing IT professionals to focus on managing systems and not the platform's infrastructure. With the cloud model, IT can be up and running quickly to provide management, support and control for desktops, servers and laptops. This makes it extremely cost effective and easy for IT to support local as well as mobile workers.

Viewfinity uses virtualization technology as the foundation to simplify and automate deployment and management of applications, licenses and assets. Viewfinity also complements traditional systems management by offering compliance adherence to flexibly manage privileges for locked down computers. Viewfinity's cloud approach delivers immediate and long-term value, scales with business need, and eliminates the equipment, training, and substantially higher costs of on-premise implementations. Based in Waltham, MA, information on Viewfinity systems management solutions can be found at www.viewfinity.com.